"It's been coming" is a phrase many soccer announcers turn to after a goal gets scored following a spell of dominance or chance-creation from the team that scored.
That "it's been coming" sentiment can also apply to the news reported yesterday by Sportico: Gotham FC reportedly being in advanced talks to move to Etihad Park in Queens beginning with the 2028 season, potentially leaving behind Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey.
The report is clear in stating that "no final decision has been made and no contract has been signed" to bring Gotham to Willets Point, but the concept of Gotham coming to play at Etihad Park is not new, nor is it particularly shocking to anyone who has been paying attention.
For years, there were indications and statement after statement made about bringing women's soccer, in some form, to Etihad Park once it opens. A lot of the statements came from NYCFC president and CEO Brad Sims, who has made clear multiple times that there's an organizational desire to bring women's soccer to the new stadium, which is now scheduled for a summer 2027 opening to coincide with the flipped MLS league calendar.
Now, as a Gotham-to-Queens move feels closer than ever, this feels like a good time to refresh the collective memory of all the times there were indications that a move like this would happen.
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February 2023: 'I think there's demand for women to play in our big stadium'
Brad Sims holds an interview with the press just a few months after NYCFC's stadium in Queens was formally announced by the club and the city of New York. In it, he discusses long-term ambitions for NYCFC which include a new training facility, "figuring out" what to do with NYCFC II, and finally, getting into women's soccer. In that interview, Sims was quoted as saying:
"We’re bullish on women’s football, and we’ve been bullish on women’s football. We have one of the best women’s football teams in the world from a City Football Group standpoint with Manchester City Women, our team in Girona has a women’s team, Melbourne has a women’s team, Montevideo has a women’s team, and I’m probably missing some others. It’s something that’s core to who we are as a company. It’s something that we want, that we plan to have...For women’s, I think there’s the demand for women to play in our big stadium. But to be able to do that you have to do it right you have to launch the team right. You have to give yourself the proper runway to sell and monetize, and to my standpoint there’s a level of urgency to figure that out. There’s a lot of stuff going on."
